2024 Mathfest Talk

[Roice Nelson]

Hey Hypercubers,

I got invited to give a talk at the MAA’s yearly meeting in early August. It’s called Mathfest and they are having a session on the 50th anniversary of Rubik’s cube (here's the schedule). I think they reached out because of my “Abstracting the Rubik’s Cube” paper. Or maybe because I'm also turning 50 this year... I hadn't known I was born the same year the cube was invented :D 

Anyway, here is the talk summary.

Title

Hypercubing Heads Home

Abstract

Over the past few decades, a mathematically minded group has been uncovering analogues of Rubik’s cube in far away abstract places. This group first formed around the hypercubical 3x3x3x3 (or 3^4) Rubik analogue, so we call ourselves hypercubers. In the last few years, Melinda Green pivoted our journey back towards the original. She and other members developed a physical puzzle with a symmetry group isomorphic to the 2^4 hypercube puzzle. This talk will share highlights of our adventures into abstraction and landing back in the physical world. Join us in the fourth dimension and play with a physical hyperpuzzle yourself!

I’m sharing in case anyone thinks particular details would be good for the talk. I welcome recommendations! It’ll probably be a month before I have a draft, but I can share it with anyone who was up for giving input.

And If any of you hypercubers are going to be at Mathfest, it’d be super cool to meet in person!!

I’ll post this on the discord as well, though maybe not for a bit since I'm out of town at the moment.

Best,
Roice